


Betrayal

by tjmystic



Series: Birthday Fics [16]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-28
Updated: 2013-02-28
Packaged: 2017-12-03 21:53:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjmystic/pseuds/tjmystic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle gets her memories back just in time to see Rumple making another “deal” with Cora...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Betrayal

Betrayal  
Birthday Fic #16

Rating: PG-13 due to some sexual references

anon prompted: Belle gets her memories back just in time to see Rumple making another “deal” with Cora; anon prompted: AU where Gold doesn’t immediately leave to find Bae

Author’s Note: Check it out, guys! I actually managed to get one done today! Maybe it won’t take me all week after all :D Anyway, thanks for all your lovely support - I wouldn’t have been able to finish this without it <3

 

“Mr. Gold’s going to protect you…”

“Do I know you?”… “No. But you will.”

“Rumplestiltskin, wait. I… I remember. I love you.”

“My darling Belle…”

Her eyes snapped open, alert for the first time in weeks. The sensation of a kiss, minutes old at the most, covered her lips. Rumple had been here. He’d kissed her. And in her dreams, she loved him - the curse was broken. 

“I remember.” She smiled wide, splitting her face in half. ”I remember!” 

Dr. Whale - and oh how it relieved her to recall that his true name was Frankenstein - raced into her room, two orderlies hanging behind just in case. 

“Belle, what’s wrong?” he demanded, lab coat whipping at his feet. ”Was someone in here? Did Cora - ?”

“No, doctor,” she grinned, wiping her joyful tears away. ”I’ve got my memory back.”

“But how…?” His eyes sharpened, mouth curving into a smirk that was equal parts amused, annoyed, and impressed. ”Gold.”

Belle jolted up, throwing the monitor on her finger into the wall. ”Rumple was here? When?”

Whale shrugged. ”A minute ago, tops. I told him to leave you alone, but he insisted on coming by. Good thing, too, it seems.”

Belle pulled on her still-bloody jacket, trying to ignore the stains on its right arm. ”Do you know where he went?”

He hesitated for just a moment before putting his hands on her shoulders, trying to push her back onto the cot. ”Belle, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to leave just yet. You just got your memories back, you might be in shock.”

Much as she appreciated the gesture, she swatted the doctor’s hands away. ”I have to go! He doesn’t know I’m back, he needs to understand!”

“Belle -!”

She didn’t stop for either him or the beefy men behind. Rumple couldn’t have gotten far, even if he had used his magic. And, right now, catching up with him was all that mattered. 

Belle was back. They were back…

———————————————————————————————————————-

Gold trudged listlessly back into his shop, bum leg hanging behind him while his cane dragged ahead. He thought it would work. He didn’t know why - he’d already tried it once only to have her scream at him like a monster - but he honestly thought that, this time, she’d wake up. 

That really was the only bad thing about having Bae back - he was once again filled with hope, and hope made him do foolish, foolish things.

“Did it not work, darling?” a voice cooed behind the counter. 

Gold’s shoulders stiffened - of course Cora would come to rub his nose in it. 

“I must say, I overestimated your intelligence, dearie,” he responded. He’d sound perfectly polite to anyone who didn’t know him. ”Even your daughter has sense enough not to bother me while I’m working. Then again, she learned that lesson the hard way.” He turned to glare at her. “Maybe you came for a crash course?”

Cora simpered. ”Oh, don’t be so droll, Rumple. It doesn’t suit you at all.”

He didn’t turn around. She wouldn’t bait him in his own domain, ratty as said domain was. Especially not when Bae… when Neal, refused to talk to him and Belle’s mind was still vacant.

He should’ve known that getting her to leave wouldn’t be so easy. 

“I actually came here for a specific reason,” she said, sugary and almost matronly in tone. ”One that might even be of interest to you.”

He scoffed. ”I sincerely doubt it, dearie.” 

Cora’s hand closed on his shoulder. Gold spun around to throw her away, but she had already pressed her lips to his ear.

“I know how to get your girl’s memory back.”

Gold froze, unwilling to believe her sick lies but unable to tear himself away. He was a masochist, plain and simple - anything to give him hope, even if he knew it was in vain.

“Go on,” he said roughly.

Cora laughed, and stepped even closer into his chest. His fingers ached to throttle her with his cane, but he chose to stay still as a statue instead.

“What would she call you, hmm?” Cora murmured, curling her talons around his hair. She felt like ice, cold and unforgiving - his Belle was a ray of warmth and love. ”Did she have a sweet little nickname for you?”

He refused to answer. It didn’t matter, anyway - Belle would never call him anything but “Mr. Gold” ever again. Nothing Cora did could help him - he’d tried everything he knew, and, thus, everything she knew to bring Belle back.

But Cora didn’t relent. She pressed her chest close to his, trailed her nose down the side of his cheek like Belle used to when they kissed. His soul throbbed. 

“I bet she called you Rum, too, didn’t she?” the witch grinned. ”Did she tell you that she wanted to drink you down, too… like I did?”

He could feel her gyrating thigh, her chest pressed tight to his. He remembered the feeling more than he would’ve liked to. After all, the main reason he’d taken her on to begin with was her lovely tits, always pushed high and jutted out for his perusal. He saw the evil inside her, he’d have been an idiot not to, and he knew she’d be more than willing to play his games. 

He just wished he’d realized how good of a player she would be.

“What do you want?” he hissed, trying his damnedest to back away from the harpy. She held tight with her claws. 

Cora’s smile could’ve frozen fire. ”Just a kiss, darling. One kiss, and I can restore your precious Belle’s memories.”

He was tempted. Oh, he was tempted. But he was too smart for this. He knew better than to trust anything this witch said. Nothing she did could return his Belle. Nothing anyone did… 

“Pity,” she sighed, blessedly interrupting his thoughts. ”I guess it’s not all like old times, is it? You used to be hard and ready from the moment I said ‘go’.”

In spite of himself, Gold kept his eyes glued to hers. ”Things change, dearie. But then, you never learned that lesson, either.”

She laughed at him, a breathy noise that would have made him burn years ago. ”Oh, I know all about change.”

Before he could even begin to ask what she was talking about, a swirl of blue smoke enveloped them. Gold fought it off, disintegrating the last bits of it lest she try anything foolish, but it was too late. Cora was gone. And Belle stood in her place.

“Now, how about that kiss?” she asked. 

It was Belle’s voice, Belle’s face, Belle’s body. But it was a lie - it was only Cora in a mask. That was it, that was all - this wasn’t his true love.

In one fluid motion, he yanked the woman into his arms, banging his lips, teeth, and tongue against hers in an effort to feel whole. She responded with a kitten-like mewl, so different from any noise his Belle would ever make, but he was a master of pretending. This was Belle. This was the love of his life.

This was a lie.

He spun her around, lifting her onto the counter so she could wrap her thighs around his waist. His tongue dove deeper into her mouth, praying for the taste of iced tea when all he found was charcoal. This was the closest he’d ever get to having his Belle again - he had to make it last. He had to make it good. 

But she was already moving away, already transforming into the wicked Queen of Hearts. Salt filled the creases of his eyes, but he refused to be weak in this moment. 

“You never told me she was a voyeur… Master,” Cora smirked. ”No wonder you kept her around.”

Gold tossed her away, her kiss feeling like ashes in his mouth. The evil smile never left her lips. He would’ve asked why, but the answer was already in front of him - Belle was kneeling back against the curtain to his backroom. Her shoulders were shaking - she was crying. 

“Belle?”

Cora disappeared in a blur of blue light, leaving nothing but the acrid trace of her laughter and the unsaid words “My part of the deal is done”. 

“Belle, what’s wrong?” he called out, not caring if this shell of the woman he loved was afraid of him. She was sad, and someone needed to be there for her. 

He expected her to be put-off, maybe turn around and take a step back. He didn’t expect her to slap his cheek hard enough to make it bleed. 

“How could you?” she whimpered. She looked so cold, so hurt, so betrayed. 

But, apart from that, she also looked so much like his Belle. 

His eyes went wide. ”Belle, is it -?”

“Don’t!” She shook away from him, as if she wanted to turn but decided not to at the last second. “Don’t act like you’re happy that my memories are back. Not when I just saw – you and –”

Before he could stop her, Belle had bent herself double, spitting thin, watery saliva from her lips. He reached forward to touch her, to pet her and hold her and make it better, but she pushed him back with a shaking hand.

“Please,” she murmured, tearing off a bit of a towel so she could clean her mouth. ”Please, I don’t want to hear it. I thought… I thought we could be together again.”

Gold reached for her again. This was all too much - she was back but thought him gone, crying and miserable and sick and desperately in need of his help. She loved him again. And oh how he loved her, too.

“We can be, Belle,” he said a little desperately, fighting back the urge to hold her. She’d brushed off his first two attempts already, another would only break his heart. ”It wasn’t what -“

“Don’t you dare,” she hissed, her voice full of tears, “tell me that it’s not what I think. You grabbed her and you kissed her like… like you used to kiss me. Don’t you dare tell me I’m crazy.”

Gold glared, but not at her - what had they told her at the hospital to make her doubt her own sanity again? The good doctor would be hearing from him soon.

“I would never tell you that you’re crazy, Belle,” he vowed, fingers twitching with the desire to frame her face. ”You’re the sanest woman I’ve ever met. Well, apart from the fact that you somehow still love me.”

Belle laughed bitterly, causing another strand of not-vomit to curl around her lip. He magicked it away without a thought, and she flinched at the sensation. Gold cursed at himself under his breath.

“Maybe I can’t love you anymore,” she muttered. ”Maybe you really are a monster.”

His heart, his soul, everything in his being went dark. She couldn’t mean that. She couldn’t - “Belle…”

“I’d understand if you went after another woman,” she continued, almost like he’d never said anything at all. ”For all you knew, my memories were gone forever. I would’ve wanted you to be happy without me. You need somebody to help you when you finally find Baelfire. But for you to turn to Regina’s mother, the woman you said would bring ruin to all of us… you haven’t changed at all.” The diamond tears finally dropped from her eyes. ”I trusted you.”

“But you can still trust me, sweetheart,” he pleaded, stepping as close to her as he could without spooking her. ”You can. That kiss meant nothing, Belle, it was just a deal. She told me she could bring your memories back!”

She actually lifted her face for him this time. ”She what?”

Gold sighed. This was far from the forgiveness he sought, but at least she was listening. ”She told me she could bring your memories back. I’d tried everything, Belle. This last time, I thought I’d finally found a way - kiss you in your dreams in the hopes that you loved me there. But when you didn’t wake up, I… I thought I’d failed. But, obviously, I didn’t.” 

Carefully, he settled his hand on her shoulder, lowering himself to the ground so the angle wouldn’t be as awkward. She didn’t move, and he thanked every deity he could think of for that. 

“I wouldn’t have kissed her at all, but she put on your face, and I… Belle, I missed you. So much. And I thought I’d never get to touch you again. I thought I’d never get to hold you again.” 

Belle sunk into his touch, but her eyes were still distrustful. He knew how it looked - he knew how other men might lie. But he couldn’t - not to her, and not now. He leaned in and brought her close to his chest. Her tears leaked into his tie, and it was the best he’d felt in weeks.

“She was nothing compared to you, love. I kept searching for traces of you, but there weren’t any. That doesn’t excuse it, I know. But Belle, please - please understand that I love you. No one else, and especially not Cora.”

Belle shoulders still shook, his shirt was still wet with her tears, and her throat still stuck with remnants of her disgust. But she didn’t let go. For Gold, that was all he needed to know that he should keep holding on. He’d never let go either. Never again.

“We’ll talk in the morning,” she finally murmured. ”Right now, I just… I just want you to hold me? Pretend that this didn’t happen. That when I came back -“

“Anything, Belle,” he interrupted, wrapping his body around hers and lowering them both to the ground. ”We can have anything you want. And when you came in, I was waiting for you, and this is where we ended up. Nothing happened in between.”

She nodded tiredly, and pressed a watery kiss to the hollow of his throat. ”Thank you for bringing me back.”

Gold kept his own tears at bay, but just barely. ”Thank you for giving me another chance I don’t deserve.”

They spent the whole night that way, cradled around each other in his shop floor, neither willing to let the other go. Here, they had trust. They had faith. And, maybe, they had nothing that remained of false betrayals.


End file.
